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How to Tell Time

Time is money. Time is of the essence. Time is, well, important. Telling time is especially important as you grow up and become a busy person. This article here is for anybody who wants to know how to tell time. Read on for some helpful hints and tips.

Find a working clock to look at. On this clock, you'll notice a lot of numbers and three arrows, also called hands.

One hand is very thin and moves very fast. It's called the seconds hand. Every time it moves, a second has gone by.

Another hand is thick and long like the seconds hand. It's called the minutes hand. Every time it moves one little tick, a minute has gone by. Every 60 times it moves a whole step, an hour has gone by.

The last hand is thick, too, but smaller than the minutes hand. It's called the hours hand. Every time it moves one big tick, an hour has gone by. Every 24 times it moves a whole step, a day has gone by.

Look at the numbers on the clock. You'll notice that there are a lot of numbers laid out around the clock. They are laid out in ascending order, which means they get bigger as they move around the circle of the clock. There are numbers going up from 1 all the way to 12.

Know that every hand on a clock travels around a circle in the same direction. We call this direction "clockwise." It goes in the order of the numbers, like the clock was counting up from 1 to 12. The hands on the clock always travel this direction when they are working properly.

Look at the number that the minutes hand (the long, relatively thick hand) is pointing at. This will tell us the minute of the day. Notice the little ticks in between the big numbers. These represent minutes, although each big number also one minute, as well as the hour. Tell how many minutes there are by counting each little tick as one minute, starting from the number 12.

Learn to determine the the minutes. Minute time uses multiples of five, along with little ticks in between big numbers. When the minutes hand is pointed in between a big number on the clock, find the nearest big number that it has passed, multiply that number by 5, and add that product to however many little ticks are in between. There are four small ticks in between each big number.

For example, if the minutes hand is pointed right in between the 2 and the 3, go first to the 2. Use the 2 to multiply 5, which gives us 10. Then, count out the number of ticks it takes to get from 10 to where the minutes hand is pointed: it takes two, meaning.

Know where the minutes hand is when the hours hand is pointed exactly at its number. When the hours hand is pointed exactly at a big number on the clock, the minutes hand will always be pointed directly at 12.

This is because the hour changed, so the minutes hand is starting over again. If the hours hand is pointed directly at 5 and the minutes clock is pointed directly at 12, that means it's 5 o'clock exactly.

Notice where the hours hand is on this example. The hours hand is pointed directly at the number 6, which means it's exactly 6 o'clock. If the hours hand is pointed exactly at 6, that means that the minutes hand must be pointed directly at 12.

Notice where the hours and minutes hands are on this example. The hours hand is in between 11 and 12, while the minutes hand is 4 ticks beyond the 3. How do we figure out the time?

First, let's tell the hour of the day. Because the hours hand is between 11 and 12, we pick the lower number. This means it's 11-something o'clock. Let's do the minutes next. We need to multiply 3 by 5. This gives us 15. Now we need to add the 4 ticks to 15 which gives us 19. There are 19 minutes in the hour, and the hour is 11. That means the time is 11:19.

There are 60 minutes in an hour. There are 5 tick marks in between each number on the clock. Each one is one minute. If the long minute hand is pointed at the 3, that means it is 15 minutes past the hour. At the 4, it is 20 past the hour and so on. I am sure there are plenty of online videos and worksheets to help you.

On a normal analog clock, you can't. This is because people are expected to be able to tell whether it is near the beginning or the end of the day. Most people wake up after 6:00 and go to bed before 11:00, so could gauge whether it's AM or PM by the way they feel.

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Some clocks may have a hand that ticks every second that looks kind of like the minute hand and it also passes sixty clicks each time around the clock. The only difference is that it measures seconds, not minutes, and you can tell the difference by how fast it moves.

About This Article

If you need to tell time on an analog clock, remember that the short and thick hand tells the hour, but the long and slightly thinner hand tells the minute. That makes the hour hand easy to read because if it points at the 2, it is 2 o’clock; or if it points at the 3, it’s 3 o’clock. However, when the minute hand points at a number, you have to multiply it by 5 to get the minutes. For example, the minute hand points at the 6 when it’s 5:30 because 6 times 5 = 30.